sciendum est quod in prædictis non intelligitur absolvens illicite communicare cum excommunicato: sed licite facit, quia hæc ad salutem animæ pertinent, et in his licitum est cum excommunicatis communicare seu participare, nec sententia incurritur. Nota quod excommunicato a canone in sua absolutione principaliter injungendum est, sub juramento suo, quod contra canonem illum nunquam veniat. Videlicet incendiario, quod nunquam incendat nisi in bello justo. Et percussori clerici, quod nunquam percutiat nisi in casu licito, et ita de similibus. In quibusdam autem requiritur cautio quod de cætero talia non faciant. Item quando excommunicatus habet justum impedimentum ne possit accedere ad eum a quo de jure foret absolvendus, et propter periculum mortis, vel aliud simile absolvitur ab eo qui alias eum absolvere non posset, injungendum est ei ut, quam cito poterit, se præsentet ei qui de jure absolvere debuit vel consuetudine, recepturus mandatum ejus et satisfacturus. Nam aliter reincidit in eandem sententiam. Et eodem modo reincidunt absoluti a sede apostolica vel a legatis ejusdem sedis, quibus in absolutione injungitur ut ordinario vel alteri se præsentent pro pænitentia suscipienda, et quod satisfaciant injuriam passis, et hoc non faciunt quam citius commode possunt. Item si quis absolverit aliquem de facto ab excommunicatione a qua de jure non potuit absolvere, cum hoc advertit, tenetur sic absolutum certificare de errore suo, et consulere quod impetret sibi absolutionem ab eo qui de jure absolvere potest. The Order of Consecration THE following order of the Benediction and Consecration of Nuns, is taken from a Manuscript in the Library of the University of Cambridge. (Fol. Mm. 3. 13.) It is written upon vellum, sixteen leaves, and the entire volume is now reprinted. On the blank leaf at the beginning is written " Hic liber attinet ad monasterium monialium sanctæ mariæ in civitate winton. Ex dono Reverendi in Christo patris, Domini Ricardi Fox, ejusdem civitatis Episcopi, et dicti monasterii benefactoris præcipui.' Bishop Fox was translated to Winchester from Durham in the year 1500, and died Bishop of that See in 1528. The MS. was probably written soon after the year 1500. Independent of those particulars which are not contained in the Pontificals, and the curiosity of the English rubrics, the following Order will be found to be highly interesting in many respects, and important as throwing much light upon the practice and observances of the English Church in one of her most solemn ancient offices. The reader will find in a few notes which I have added, a collation sufficiently exact to enable him to judge of the Order of this Office, in the Sarum and Bangor Pontificals, and in the MS. Pontifical formerly belonging to the Cathedral Church of St. Swithun in the same city of Winchester. As might be expected, in one or two points, where the following Order varies from the Sarum, it agrees with the last-named Pontifical. The Order of Consecration of Runs. HIS is the fourme and order of the cerimonies perteignyng to the solempne profession, benediction, and consecracion of holy virgyns. And thys consecracion may oonly be celebrate by a bisshop: and that vppon an holy and solempne day that is to say, the Sonday or some other solempne feest.1 First, at the houre conuenient, the bisshop wyth his ministres indued and arrayed after their accustumable maner, shall come to the hygh aulter, and there shall the sayd bisshop say and perfourme the office of the masse, wyth Gloria in excelsis. And the collecte. And when the collecte is sayd, and the bisshop sette 1 "Ordo consecrationis sanctarum virginum, quæ in diebus solemnibus facienda est: videlicet, aut in epiphania Domini, aut in festis Beatæ Mariæ, aut Apostolorum, aut dominicis diebus, fiat hoc modo. Virgines Deo dicandæ post introitum missæ et collectam, priusquam legatur epistola, ante altare in albis vestibus, veniant lento gressu, et vultibus demissis, cantantes resp: Audivi vocem." Rubr. Pontif. Sar. With which in the main, agrees the Winchester Pontifical. The Bangor MS. is defaced and slightly imperfect in this place: but I believe the following to be correct: "Consecratio Virginum, quæ in diebus dominicis, vel in Apostolorum solemnitatibus, vel in iiijor diebus nativitatis vel paschæ vel penthecostes, vel in aliis solemnitatibus : virgines sive viduæ Deo dicandæ, ad introitum missæ deponant habitum religionis : et post orationem, priusquam legatur epistola, eant usque altare cantando antiphonam: Amo Christum in cujus thalamum introivi. &c." as below. byfore the myddys of the hygh aulter, then suche a person as the bisshop shall appoynt, standyng at the est dore of the quoyre, and lokyng towarde the place where the virgyns that then shall professe doo array theymself, shall syng unto theym: Prudentes virgines aptate vestras lampades, ecce sponsus venit, exite obviam ei.o And that song, forthwyth the sayde virgyns conducted by an honorable preest in a Cope, every oon of theym clothed all in whyte, and beryng vppon hir ryght arme, the habite that the relygyon and profession requireth, wyth the veyle, ryng, and scroll of hir professyon, attached uppon the sayd habite, and in hir left hande beryng a taper wythoute lyght, must come frome the place where they were arrayed, towardys the west dore of the quoyre: softely in manner of procession, soo that thelders goo byfore the yongers, inclynyng ther faces towardys the grownde, syngeng all together thys responde: Audivi vocem de cœlo dicentem: Venite omnes virgines sapientissimæ. Oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit. V. Media nocte clamor factus est, Ecce sponsus venit. Oleum. And soo syngeng the saide responde, entre in to the quoyre and passe softely through the same towardys the hyght aulter. And addressyng theym streight to the ryght ende of the same aulter, they shall lay vppon it in order theyr veyles, ryngys, and scrolles of theyr professyon and soo retorne to the bisshop. And at 2 Neither of the three Pontificals notice this: or any other of the particulars which follow, until the |